Sire (10 page)

"Okay, first, you're going to have to tell me what the hell a Day Man is," Alexis said. "But more importantly, I want you to listen to the words that are coming out of your mouth. You spent the night with the hottest guy we've seen since we got here, and you show up the next morning
not wearing your clothes,
and I'm supposed to believe that nothing happened."

"Exactly!"

"Babe, it's not the nineteen-fifties anymore. It's okay to have sex."

Caitlin sat down across from Alexis, buried her head in her arms, and groaned. "Believe me. If something had happened, I would be right here bragging about it. But I swear to God, it was nothing."

They were interrupted by a knock at the door, and Caitlin sighed in relief. Thank God, something to distract Alexis and her one-track mind. "I'll get it," Caitlin said.

Garret was waiting outside, leaning against the door frame. "Hey Caitlin. Glad you made it back all right. We waited for you, but, well," he said.

God, she was going to have this conversation with everyone she saw today, wasn't she? "Yeah, sorry about that. I was ... it's complicated."

"Hey, no big deal. Say, is Bethany around?"

"I think she's in her room, let me go check," Alexis said.

Bethany wandered out a moment later. She blushed when she saw him. "Oh, hi, Garret."

Garret gave her a smile so white it was almost blinding. "Hey there. You okay?"

"Oh, yeah," Bethany said, carefully studying her toes. "I just, I didn't want, I'm not good with awkward, and I didn't want to, well, sorry I disappeared on you."

Caitlin got the distinct impression that she was listening to a conversation that she really wasn't supposed to be a part of, but she was kind of caught in between the two of them.

"That's okay," Garret said, "I just wanted to make sure I didn't do anything to scare you off."

Bethany perked up a bit. "Oh, no! Nothing at all. I just didn't want things to get weird."

"Great," Garret said, giving her another one of his great smiles. "You want to go get breakfast?"

Bethany smiled. "I'd love to," she said.

"Perfect. Oh, you, um, left something at my place."
 

"What is it?"

"I should really give it to you in your room."

"Oh, come on."

"Okay," Garret said. He walked over and dropped something into her hand, but Caitlin couldn't see what it was.

But Alexis could. "Are those your
underwear?
"

Bethany turned bright red, and Caitlin turned red just out of sympathy. Garret stammered a bit, but couldn't say anything.

But Alexis wasn't thinking about any of them. She stormed back over to the counter and shoveled an angry spoonful of cereal into her mouth. "Am I the only one who didn't get laid last night?" she fumed.

That actually made Caitlin crack a bit of a smile, and at least gave Bethany a chance to recover. "I, um, have to get rid of ... I'll be right back. Meet me outside?"

"Sure thing, Beth," Garret said.

Caitlin sat down with Alexis. "So," she said, "bad night?"

"It was a great night," Alexis said. "Right up until we got back here. We were together all night at the club, he acted like he was really into me, I gave him all the signals. Hell, I didn't give him
signals
, I invited him in to take a shower with me. And you know what he did?"

"I'm guessing it doesn't involve lathering, rinsing, and repeating?"

"He gave me a side hug. A
side hug.
Do I look like the kind of girl that does side hugs? No, no I do not."

Caitlin made a face. "Sorry, hun. I really don't know what to say."

"You can say that he's a big stupidhead that missed out on the best night of his life."

"He's a big stupidhead that missed out on the best night of his life," Caitlin repeated dutifully.

"And that he's probably gay."

"And he's probably gay."

"Thank you," Alexis said, and shoveled more cereal, crunching grumpily.

Chapter Six

Michael didn't spend much time in this part of Angelica's mansion.

When he saw her, it was usually on a more
personal
basis, but this was strictly business. Which meant that they were in the part of the mansion reserved for business.

They were waiting in a cavernous room, easily a hundred feet long and nearly as wide. The floors were marble, and the high ceiling was supported by a series of pillars. There was no artwork on the walls, but the windows were stained glass. If you looked carefully, though, you'd see that the images were considerably more graphic than you'd find in a church.

They waited at the end farthest from the entrance, near the raised platform. The dais was also made of marble, and atop it sat Angelica's ebony throne. A hidden door opened, and Angelica's assistant appeared. "You will be seen now," she said.

The two vampires rose and followed her into Angelica's office.

Angelica's private space wasn't as vast as the throne room, but it was still needlessly large. The floors of the office were covered in thick, plush carpet, and the walls were covered in dark wallpaper with a subtle print. The entire back wall was one giant window. Shutters were hidden in the wall, which could slide into place to make the room light-tight.

Angelica sat behind her mahogany desk, her face a stone mask. She was dressed in a black pant suit, and her hair hung in a braid behind her. She leaned forward, her fingers steepled. Even though she was looking up at them, it was clear that she was the most dominant person in the room. "Sit," she said, pointing to the two chairs that faced her desk. It wasn't an invitation.

They sat and waited. "I assume you know why we're here," Angelica said at last.

"Well, I'm here to find out how this sorry excuse for a vampire is going to be punished," Liam said.

Angelica sighed and sat back. "You should be more worried about—"

Liam pounded his fist on Angelica's desk. "He killed seventeen of my wolves!"

Angelica raised an eyebrow at him. "When did you start caring about werewolves?"

"They don't grow on trees," Liam spat. "Do you know how hard it's getting to find decent help?"

"Right," Michael said. "Because if there's one thing we're short on, it's werewolves. How many do we have crawling around the city? Fifty? Or is that just your personal guard?"

Liam rose from his chair. "You entered my grounds uninvited. You slaughtered my men. And you took. My. Dinner."

"
I
told him to retrieve the girl," Angelica said. "And it's not his fault you can't be bothered to pick up your cell phone. Now sit down."

Reluctantly, Liam retook his chair. "You commanded him to kill my entire staff?"

Angelica smiled. "No, that was his own idea."

"Exactly," Liam started, but Angelica cut him off.

"Of course," she said, "if your wolves really did ignore my signet, I would have had them killed anyway. So really, Michael was just expediting the process. Did their Alpha really say that your orders were more important than mine?"

Liam avoided her eyes. "Well, we could ask him, except Michael cut his damn voice box out." He was clearly unhappy that she knew Liam's followers considered themselves beyond her reach. In St. Troy, pretty much
nothing
was beyond her reach.

Michael smirked. Liam's talons extended, and he reared back to slash. "Enough," Angelica said, with a voice as cold as the arctic wind.

Anger flashed in Liam's eyes, but he settled down. "So you're doing his hunting for him now? He picks a pretty girl, and you move heaven and earth to get her for him? You need to start thinking with your head, and not your—"

"Be very careful with your next words, Scion," Angelica said. A dangerous note had crept into her voice.

"I've been patient with you," she continued. "I know that you don't agree with the way I'm running this city. And I've told you before, if you want to go to another city and find a Regent that will let you hunt the way you want, you can leave with my blessing. But while you're in my city, you will obey my rules."

She shook her head. "You're getting careless, Liam. This girl would have been the second one this week. Never mind that Michael was ... interested in her. We can't afford the attention. There's a horde of parents watching this place right now, worried about their children, away from home for the first time. And if they start disappearing ... Do you have any idea how hard it was to cover up that girl's death?"

"Nothing draws attention faster than a pretty white girl gone missing," Michael said with a smirk.

Liam stared at them, mouth hanging open. "We used to hunt together. You taught me how to
be
a vampire. And now ..."

"Now," Angelica said, "we live more comfortably than any vampires in the world. We have a home, and a constant food supply, and access to some of the brightest minds and most beautiful people from this generation. But you'd throw that all away, wouldn't you?"

"We aren't meant to be comfortable," Liam said, exasperated. "We're supposed to be hunters! We're supposed to work for our food. Enjoy the hunt. What good is having the University if we can't eat any of the students?"

"We can eat them, Liam. We just can't kill them."

"We're predators!"

"We're survivors, Liam. And if we're going to survive in this world, we have to adapt to it. If you don't like it, there are a dozen Regents that would love to have you."

Angelica picked up some papers lying on her desk. "You may leave," she said.

Michael and Liam walked out of the office and back into the throne room.

"Well, I'm glad we had that little chat," Michael said.

"I'm sure you loved that," Liam said. "Angelica's little neutered pet, watching the real vampires get their fangs pulled."

"It did put a smile on my face. But that's enough about me. Let's talk about you, and how you're going to leave Caitlin alone."

"Oh, is that her name?"

"You know damn well what her name is, and she's off limits."

Liam gave him a cruel smile. "I'm a vampire, Mike. A real one. No one's off limits. Not even your little blond crush."

"Angelica—"

"Angelica said I can't kill her. But there are still plenty of ways to entertain myself. In fact, I might go visit her right now. Her blood is practically
singing
to me."

Michael roared. He pulled the silver dagger so fast it seemed to appear by magic, then Michael rushed forward and slashed at Liam with furious power.

But Liam caught hold of Michael's wrist and casually stripped the dagger from his hand. "You really don't learn, do you?"

He thrust the dagger between Michael's ribs. Michael choked and fell to the ground, smoke curling up from the wound. "I'll give Caitlin your regards," Liam said.

He looked back when he reached the door. "I really have no idea what Angelica sees in you."

***

Caitlin tried, she really did. She tried to pay attention in class. It was still the first week, and she didn't want to get behind so soon. She tried to get excited when they toured the dark room. A real dark room, with red lights and trays filled with chemicals. She'd always wanted to see one of those, to see how photography worked before you could just download a bunch of RAW files to your Mac and tweak them in Aperture. She tried to follow the conversation at dinner. Alexis was grilling Bethany about Garret, demanding to know the intimate details of how he ended up with her intimate apparel.

But it was hopeless. Every time Caitlin closed her eyes, hell, even when they were still open, she saw Michael.

Part of her was head-over-heels about him. Who wouldn't be? This was every teenage girl's fantasy, come to life. A handsome, brooding, vampire had literally broken down the door to rescue her from monsters. This was the kind of thing they made movies about, and it was
real,
and it was happening to
her.
There were moments when Caitlin just wanted to scream, she was so excited.

But part of her was ... not afraid, not really. It was more like she knew that she
should
be afraid. That being kidnapped should have affected her more. That the knowledge that Liam was still out there should have scared her. And the fact that Michael was a ...

No, he wasn't a monster. He was one of the good guys. He had his urges under control, and when he fought, it was to
protect
people, not to eat them. He was a vegetarian, or whatever they really called themselves.

But every once in a while Caitlin flashed back to her dream, and saw Michael's ruby eyes and razor-sharp fangs. And when that happened, she wanted to scream all over again.

They were sitting in their dorm, on the couch. Caitlin had a book in her lap, trying to finish some of the reading she had been assigned and failing miserably. Bethany was on the other end of the couch, and Alexis was in one of the arm chairs. The television was on, but no one was really paying attention to it. They were all lost in their own worlds.

And then it hit her. The worst pain Caitlin had ever felt in her entire life.

It was like someone had jammed a white-hot knife into her chest. Everything else disappeared, replaced with searing pain. Caitlin tried to cry out, but she couldn't even draw a breath. She grabbed at her chest and curled into a ball, and wondered if she was dying.

"Caitlin? Are you all right, babe?" Alexis' voice was worried.

Caitlin couldn't answer. She was somewhere else, somewhere she didn't recognize. It looked like some kind of a church, like the big Cathedral that her parents dragged her to on Christmas and Easter, except it was all white marble instead of dreary gray. She was lying on the floor, looking at some kind of a throne.

"Michael," she gasped.

And just like that, the pain and the vision was gone.

"What?" Alexis asked. Bethany was looking at her intently.

Caitlin took a moment to clear her head. "Um, Michael. I was supposed to meet him tonight, and I totally forgot about it."

"And that made you faint?" Alexis asked. "Is he that good in bed?"

Caitlin gave a nervous laugh. "I wouldn't know," she said. "But I have to get going. I don't want to miss him."